UPDATE: Junior college kick returner/wide receiver Lance Ray was cleared and officially joined ECU’s 105-man roster Thursday afternoon. Ray participated in the Pirates’ afternoon practice in shorts and helmet as mandated by the NCAA. He will be allowed to take part in full-contact workouts on his fifth day in camp.

As college football teams all around the state feverishly prepare for the rapidly approaching season, here’s an update on how things are progressing in their preseason camps. In this installment, we go to Greenville to check in on the East Carolina Pirates.

Ray

The ongoing saga of Lance Ray appears to be nearing an end. The junior college kick returner/wide receiver is on campus in Greenville and is awaiting final clearance of his transfer before officially joining the team.

That could happen as early as today or Friday.

Once “all the Is are dotted and Ts are crossed” – as a school spokesman put it – the 6-foot-2, 210-pound speedster can begin practicing on a limited basis.

NCAA rules mandate that players must spend their first two days in helmets and shorts only before adding shoulder pads for the next two days. That timetable would still give Ray a full week of full-contact practice before the Pirates’ season-opener against Appalachian State on Sept. 1.

Although Ray caught 37 passes for 704 yards and 12 touchdowns last season at Northwest Mississippi Junior College, his immediate impact at ECU is likely to be as a kick returner, where he returned two for touchdowns last season.

He also handled the return duties for Arkansas as a freshman, leading the Razorbacks with an average of 22.5 yards per attempt.

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Rio Johnson looked sharp at Sunday's intrasquad scrimmage

Coach Ruffin McNeill and offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley don’t appear to be any closer to naming a starting quarterback, but it does at least look as though the race for the job may be narrowing a bit.

Freshman Cody Keith has been taking slightly fewer reps than the other three candidates after a balky 1 of 5 performance in Sunday’s scrimmage. Keith completed his first pass for 10 yards to wide receiver Andrew Bodenheimer, then misfired on his next four attempts.

By contrast, junior Rio Johnson was 5 of 9 for 74 yards and a 12-yard touchdown to Justin Jones. Senior Brad Wornick had the next best performance of the scrimmage by going 5 of 7 for 44 yards while leading the offense to a field goal while sophomore Shane Carden was 2 of 5 for 70 yards with 68 of them coming on a bomb to Danny Webster on his first throw.

All four quarterbacks led the team for a pair of series’. McNeill and Riley said that the final decision on who starts could come down to the day of the first game if necessary.

Of the four candidates, only Johnson and Wornick have seen any actual game action.

“I think we’re trying to just see who can manage the team the best, and they all do that,” McNeill said. “They’re throwing the ball well. It’s going to be a tough choice, but I feel good about that group.”

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Reggie Bullock is listed as No. 1 on the depth chart at RB for the Pirates

Similar to the situation at quarterback, there still hasn’t been any appreciable separation among the large group of running backs vying for the limited carries available in the Pirates’ pass-oriented spread offense.

As many as five, perhaps even six players of all shapes, sizes and levels of experience are battling it out for at least a piece of the action.

Junior Torrance Hunt led the ECU in rushing with 489 yards last season, but he came into preseason camp listed fourth on the depth chart behind senior Reggie Bullock (427 yards and four touchdowns in only six games), junior Michael Dobson (221 yards and three TDs) and North Carolina transfer Hunter Furr.

At 6-foot, 223 pounds, Furr figures to be set in the short-yardage role, though tight end/H-Back/Inside Wide Receiver hybrid Zico Paust could also be called upon once he returns from his concussion.

Also in the mix is junior college transfer Vintavious Cooper and redshirt freshman Chris Hairston.

“We’ve got a lot of running backs here and every one of them is great,” Bullock, who is currently listed as the starter, said. “We compete well, same as the quarterback position. The one who comes out and makes the most plays for our offense will be the starter.”

The problem is that none of them made many plays in Sunday’s scrimmage. Dobson, Hairston, Bullock and Hunt combined to gain only 10 yards on seven rushes – an average of just 1.4 yards per carry.

The offense also failed to score on a first-and-goal from the two after Carden’s long completion to Webster.

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The Pirates are in the process of shifting from training camp mode to game preparation mode. On Tuesday, their first day off since the start of practice, the players moved out of the dorm they’ve been sharing and back into their individual residences.

Wednesday, they returned to the field for what McNeill called a “crisp” workout before preparing for their final two-a-day session of the summer today. They’ll hold their final preseason scrimmage on Saturday, sandwiched around the annual “Meet the Pirates” fanfest at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

“I’m sure every coach is pleased with their camp,” McNeill said, “But it’s grinding at this point.”

Lots of good info. Not hearing a lot about receivers with lack of big time speed. Other than that, it’s not clear where any major weakness exist with this team. Might be an interesting year for Pirates